West London Waste Authority & wedding dress brand, E&W Couture joined forces to produce a beautifully intricate upcycled wedding dress made from fabrics and offcuts generously donated by Arcadia Group & TRAID.
It is important to reuse and recycle as many textiles as possible because as a nation, we throw away around 300,000 tonnes of textiles each year, resulting in over 5% of the UK’s annual carbon and water footprint – of these disposed textiles, only 16% are reused! Across West London, approximately 18,000 tonnes of textiles are thrown out as rubbish!
One lucky west London resident has now won this exquisite wedding dress by completing a TRAID home collection to donate unwanted textiles and give them a new life! The campaign saw 2.15 tonnes of clothes donated to TRAID, which was over 7,500 items collected. These donated clothes have saved 20.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions and 3448m3 of water! Incredible!
Klavdiya is our winner and is getting married in summer 2020. Ahead of her big day, we had a fun photoshoot at Maker station (Brentford) and a quick chat with her about her wedding dress and sustainable fashion…
Is sustainability a big part of your life?
Recycling has been a big part of my life for the past several years, and now sustainability as a whole approach is definitely becoming a big part of my life.
Were you aware of the impact of fast fashion before this campaign?
Not really and I think the majority of people around the world have only now started to gradually realise the impact of global consumerism, that has prevailed for the last several decades, and are adopting a more conscious approach to consumption; including clothing.
Are you planning to include any other sustainable elements in your wedding?
After becoming the lucky winner of this campaign, I will definitely introduce some sustainable elements to my wedding. I would definitely like to avoid any plastic straws, cups or bottles and try to find alternatives where possible. I was also thinking of organising some sustainable memorable gifts for weddings guests, I think this could be a nice way to raise awareness about the impact of fast fashion and promote a more sustainable and conscious living.
What made you want enter this competition?
Both the opportunity to win a wedding dress that would be different from others and the fact that it was upcycled excited me. As this dress has been produced from upcycled fabrics, it caused less harm to our planet by reusing resources. I thought a long time ago that it is a shame people wear a wedding dress only once and then it lies in their wardrobes for years, so I will definitely try to figure out how to revive it again after the wedding!
Are you going to continue donating clothes to TRAID through their free home collections?
Definitely yes. It’s great an organisation such as TRAID exists, which not only does good for our planet, saving resources and encouraging reuse of clothes and other materials, but also makes it super easy and convenient for people to participate and donate clothes.
Are you going to make any extra fashion sustainable changes going forward?
After the big decluttering I have gone through this year, I am now definitely using a more conscious approach to buying clothes and would like to continue it going forward. Ideally, it would be great to have more options of clothes produced from recycled materials; I hope this improves over time.
Congratulation Klavdiya, we cannot wait to see your pictures from the wedding day and find out what sustainable elements you introduced!
Photo credit: Gwen Shabka Photography
Special Thanks to: E&W Couture, TRAID, Arcadia Group, Night Wolf Pictures (Vincent Kelsey), Gwen Shabka Photography, Maker Station, Matt Bowen and Olivia A.G
The post Meet our sustainable wedding dress winner! appeared first on West London Waste.